Lost
by marikada6
Summary: A recounting of what happened during the first invasion of the Shin-Ra building and what was going on behind the scenes. It's more entertaining than it sounds, I hope. Cloud and the Turks centric, possible but improbable TsengReno.


So... as I was playing through my beloved FFVII, an idea struck me. We know the Turks catch Cloud and his gang on the elevator... but what were they doing before then? They must have been watching the entire time. And for that matter, how the hell did Sephy get into the building? This is my attempt at explaining it all.

That said, I was thinking about tossing some romance in here, but it would be super-dooper background. And probably between two of the Turks. ¬.¬;;

**warnings for this chapter : **Foul language. And lots of _game spoilers_ since I'm practically basing it off the game. Also, I don't own Final Fantasy. =-(

_Read and Review please! I try to review everything I read on this site, so be polite and drop a line~_

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Entrance

"Gawd-damn. All these assholes in Shin-Ra are real fuck overs. I mean, look at this place. It's a fuckin' cakewalk through the damned rainbows. I can't believe they're actin' all self-righteous an' self-centered like the damned world revolves around some shit and-"

Barret's voice droned on and on as it had been for the past couple of hours. The climb up to the plate had been tedious to say the least, made only worse by the constant stream of profanities crossing the burly leader of Avalanche's lips.

Cloud clenched his teeth together to keep from snapping at the other man. It wouldn't do to lose his temper this far in the game- they were almost to the top after all.

The blonde mercenary tried his best to drown out everything except his own thoughts as he pulled himself up onto the platform above him. It had been a while since his last official Shin-Ra visit and his memories were elusive at best even on good days. Trying to call to mind the floor plans, where things were, the best way to get around- these were more important than whatever hatred Barret held for the upper class.

A hand on Cloud's arm startled him suddenly- Tifa's delicate fingers lingered on his skin for a moment before pulling away.

"Are you okay? You seemed kind of out of it for a second," she whispered with a glance back at Barret, "We're almost there, right? I don't think I can take much more of this."

Cloud's head bobbed in a nod and he took a deep breath, trying to get his body to relax. Climbing had never been his strong suit.

"We've only got another five yards or so before we're on top of the plate," he finally murmured, "It's just hard to tell because of the angle we're at."

His words proved true and within a few minutes, he was hoisting Tifa up over the last few bits of rubble onto flat ground once again.

And, of course, Barret came up soon after. He was surprisingly quiet considering the fact that he'd all but driven them to silent frustration all the way up.

"Damn," the gun-armed man cursed under his breath, "That is one huge building right there. You sure you know your spikey-assed way around?"

Cloud rolled his eyes and Barret scoffed loudly- the tension raising along with his voice.

"Maybe we should take a rest, okay?" Tifa interjected before the two had a chance to start an argument that would surely have ended with the involvement of the entire Shin-Ra army, "Cloud, you said you've been here before. Any ideas on what to do next?"

They fell into a silence- Cloud delving within his mind once more to find even the barest inkling of a memory. He knew he'd been here, it seemed so familiar. He could picture rooms and conversations in his head, but he couldn't remember ever having walked the halls. It was as if any trace of the architecture had been erased.

"Naw, Tifa, it looks like he don't remember jack shit," Barret realized as he looked Cloud's face, "We might as well have left this spikey-assed pansy behind."

A blue light flashed in Cloud's eyes for just an instant as silent rage coursed through his veins- but the rush of Mako was what he needed to remember.

"There are two ways in," he said, focusing more on Tifa to avoid looking at Barret, "We can storm the front, but it's sure to be guarded, and there's a side door that leads to the stairs."

Tifa nodded in understanding and spared a glance at Barret. The other man looked bored more than anything and she could tell already what was going through his head.

"Let's take the side door- we want to draw as little attention as possible-"

"Nah, man! The front entrance. We can take 'em," Barret growled, "I wanna make those fuckers pay for what they've done."

Cloud tapped his foot impatiently and waited for Barret to stop talking before giving his two cents.

"That would be a great idea- if there wasn't a big chance that SOLDIER would be down there," he hissed, "Even one operative might ruin our chances at this point."

Their argument continued, neither of them budging an inch until Tifa finally stepped in and reminded Barret she was on Cloud's side. It ended quickly then- Barret reserving himself to tranquil rage while Cloud crept through the shadows to the front of the building.

It was Tifa's idea- to scout ahead just to make sure before taking the side exit. Expect the unexpected- for all they knew, the front entrance was deserted. But machine gun fire broke the stillness and Barret jumped to his feet, his gun arm clicking into place as he took aim. Cloud was rushing towards them, motioning to them- 'it's time to move.'

And then there were stairs, and with them came more bitter complaints until a few harsh words were exchanged. Only the hollow sound of clunking boots echoed through the dark stairwell, the rhythmic thumping constantly serving to remind them why they were there.

XxXxXxX

Tseng was the first to discover the intruders. Sitting in his office, it was hard not to notice the commotion among the dozens of security camera screens that lined his walls. He gnawed on his upper lip for a moment before pulling out a cell phone and punching in Reno's number.

The red-haired Turk picked up on the first ring.

"Yo, boss," he slurred into the phone, "How may I do you?"

Tseng bit back a disgusted retort and snapped into his professional mode instead.

"We have intruders," he spoke firmly into the receiver, "One of them is definitely Cloud. The other two are probably resistance members. I want you and Rude to watch them, but do not engage the target. Do you understand?"

The leader of the Turks could almost hear Reno deflate on the other side of the phone. There was nothing the spunky Turk liked more than a good fight- especially with someone as fiery as Cloud.

"Yeah, yeah," came the reply finally, "Don't fight 'em, don't even approach 'em. I got it, boss."

"Good. Go now."

Click.

Tseng hit the 'end' button and stared a the screen until it turned black before punching in another number.

"Tseng? What is it?" the tired question ended with a yawn and Tseng allowed himself a small smile.

"Vice-President Rufus- we appear to have intruders in the building. I've got the Turks on it already," Tseng reported stoically, "I've given them orders to only observe until further notice. What course of action will you take?"

Rufus' low laugh came over the speaker muffled- as if his face was buried into a pillow and Tseng wouldn't have been surprised if the young Vice had been asleep minutes earlier.

"You've done the right thing. Just watch them for now- try to get them apart. Interrogation will be easier if they've been apart for a while. Get them nervous."

"As you wish, Vice President."

Tseng was expecting the 'click' of the phone cutting off, but it didn't come.

"Sir?" he inquired nervously, "Is there something you need?"

"Oh. No. I just got distracted," Rufus yawned once again, "Call me at the earliest hour you consider to be decent and give me an update."

"Yes sir. Good night, sir."

Tseng shut his phone and glanced back over at the cameras he had on Cloud. They were nearly to the 59th floor- the beginning of the Shin-Ra administrative sector. There was no cause for worry- not yet. The Ancient was being kept ten floors above and that was ten floors of obstacles for the three invaders to get past.

Tseng sat back in his chair and sipped from a clay mug of herbal tea and he felt the sides of his mouth turn up into a smirk. No, there was no reason to get anxious, not when they had the upper hand.

XxXxXxX

Cloud leaned up against the rail of the stairs tossing a small glass bottle from one hand to the other. Nearly sixty flights of stairs, twenty stairs each added up to about one thousand two hundred steps and the skinny former SOLDIER wasn't even out of breath. If anything, he was feeling better than he had in weeks.

He tapped his foot on the railing impatiently before turning around and peering down the long stairwell. He could catch glances of a metallic gun swinging out around seven floors down- which meant Tifa wasn't too far behind either. In fact, she was rounding the corner to the final platform within seconds, out of breath and pink in the face.

"Oh hey, Cloud," she panted, "What have you got there? a potion, I hope?"

The brunette sank down to the floor and extended leather-clad hand and Cloud delicately dropped the bottle into her palm.

"It's an Elixir. I picked it up a few floors back and thought it'd come in handy."

"Oh. Well, take care of it," Tifa replied, "Never know, you know? Anything could happen."

She rested her back against the closed door, her chest heaving still, but with less intensity as before.

As they rested, a heavy thumping grew in volume until it was upon them and Barret joined Tifa on the floor.

"So what's the plan, Spikey?" he growled, "Cause if there are any more fuckin' stairs, you can just kiss my sorry ass goodbye cause I'm takin' the damned elevator."

His gun-arm struck the floor with a resounding thunk- a period to end his sentence. Tifa and Cloud held their breath while the loud sound echoed all the way down the stairwell and probably into the hall at the other side of the door.

"My bad," the large man rumbled as he pulled himself to his feet, "I guess it's time to see what's on the other side of the door."

Tifa grabbed hold of Barret's flesh arm and used him to stand up, her legs still a bit wobbly from the long climb.

"You two sure you can handle it?" Cloud asked teasingly, eyeing over the both of them skeptically.

"You listen here smart ass," Barret growled in response, pointing his gun directly at the Mercenary's face, "We may not be some hoity-toity trained fuckin' SOLDIER, but we've been through worse. So get your skinny ass in gear and lead the way."

Cloud turned away to hide his amused smile and muttered, "All right then. Let's mosey."

_To be continued..._

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I realized after writing this that Barret's kindof a douche bag. =-( I love Barret. He's so manly.


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